Refrigerators generally include a sealed system for cooling fresh food and freezer chambers of the refrigerators. The sealed systems expand compressed refrigerant in order to reduce a temperature of the refrigerant and then supply the cool refrigerant to an evaporator. At the evaporator, heat exchange with air within the fresh food chamber and/or freezer chamber cools the air to assist with storage of food items within the refrigerator.
At an entrance to the evaporator, refrigerant can be approximately twenty to thirty percent vapor by mass. In contrast, the refrigerant is mostly vapor by volume at the entrance to the evaporator because the vapor specific volume of the refrigerant is many times larger than the liquid specific volume of the refrigerant. Thus, a velocity of the vapor/liquid mix refrigerant at the entrance of the evaporator can be slow relative to a situation where only liquid refrigerant enters the evaporator. The relatively high velocity of the vapor/liquid mix refrigerant at the entrance of the evaporator generally requires that a greater length or cross-section area for the evaporator thereby increasing a material cost for the evaporator.
Accordingly, an evaporator with features for decreasing a velocity of refrigerant at an entrance of the evaporator would be useful.